Blood Lies (Dark Brothers of the Light #9) Page 15

  He spied Jingen standing at the edges, glaring at him before turning his attention to a young human that Stygean did not recognize. Stygean felt conspicuous and began scanning the floor over Chinisi's shoulders to see how others he knew were handling the dance. Anksha danced with Isranon, so sylph-like – delicate and lovely – that it quickened a passing ambivalence in him. He wanted to hang onto his fear and dislike of her and, yet, seeing her like that made it hard to. Nevin and Gordain drew his attention to the left. Gordain winked at him, bringing a smile to Stygean's lips, and that was when the boy realized that the lycans were far more conspicuous than he was: they were the only same sex couple on the floor.

  His foot came down on something hard and Chinisi squeaked. Stygean's cheek lit up again as he stared down at his foot atop hers. He stepped back quick. "I'm sorry."

  Chinisi glared her annoyance with exaggerated severity and then relented with a giggle. "Nothing's broken. Just please pay more attention to me than Gordain or I'll start to wonder about you."

  "Caught me staring?"

  "Uh huh."

  "Dance again?"

  "Certainly."

  With Chinisi's help, they glided through the first three dances and then he led her to the side and sat her down at one of the small tables. "Refreshments?"

  She nodded prettily, and Stygean suppressed an urge to kiss her.

  Instead he went to the main tables for glasses of wine for each of them and some of the dainties, folded meats, and cheese with olives, mushrooms and other delicacies pinned together with a single silver spear. He made his way back without bumping into any of the older folk and reached their table.

  Jingen had taken his place beside Chinisi. Rage roared up in Stygean's middle and added quite a bit of heat to his tone. "What are you doing here?"

  His rival smiled with the faintest twist of a sneer. "I saw Chinisi sitting alone. So I thought I would make certain she had not been abandoned."

  "She hasn't been." Stygean slid the plates and the two wine glasses onto the table. "That's my place. Move."

  Chinisi listened to them with lowered head and brightening cheeks, struggling to hide her delight at Stygean's reaction.

  A familiar face peered over the top the mountain of gifts beneath the solstice tree. Chinisi saw him and started shaking her head and mouthing the word, "No" over and over again.

  "Make me." Jingen's lips curled up.

  Stygean's fingers curled into fists, his knuckles whitening. He could think of nothing to do that would not get him into more trouble.

  Alassance waved a piece of rope at Chinisi, grinning.

  She glanced from Stygean to Jingen and then mouthed 'no' at Alassance again.

  Alassance disappeared behind the gifts and then a long piece of rope snaked along the wall, headed in Jingen's direction.

  Chinisi rose and headed for the gifts without saying anything to either boy, determined to stop Alassance.

  "Now look what you've done," Stygean snarled at Jingen. "She's leaving!"

  "I didn't do anything." Jingen jumped to his feet, only to crash face down with the chair atop him: Alassance had tied his ankles to the chair legs. The rope released and returned to its master.

  Stygean sucked in a sharp breath and fled after Chinisi. He caught up with her just as she emerged from behind the gifts holding Alassance by the ear.

  Trumpets blared and the door snapped open.

  Instantly, Chinisi grabbed Stygean and shifted her hold on Alassance from his ear to his arm. "Stand up. Stand up! It's the king."

  Around them, everyone was rising.

  She snagged Stygean's hand as the king moved to the head of the room and Lord Edvarde gave up his seat to his nephew. King Jurgen the Sixth was of middle height and slender with long wavy hair held in place by a simple circlet. People began queuing up in pairs to offer their greeting to him.

  Chinisi whispered to Stygean as she drew him into the line. "Now bow from the waist while I curtsey."

  * * * *

  Jingen had had enough humiliation by the time he found an excuse to leave the party and headed upstairs. He stalked through the corridor of the wing where he had his room, fuming and muttering under his breath. The corridor was empty. He reached the door to his chambers and then remembered that Alassance had also left early. A desire for payback welled up in him. That little, no-talent human had embarrassed him twice that day. So Jingen headed two doors further and quietly tested the knob on Alassance's door. It was unlocked.

  He stole inside and glanced about the little parlor, which had only a single cabinet and a square table that sat four. The bedroom door was closed. Jingen put his ear to it and heard nothing, so he opened it quietly. The bed was empty. A quick glance showed no sign of the little rat. Disappointment made Jingen start to leave, and then a desire to cause trouble, emboldened by Alassance's absence, made him decide to poke around.

  Jingen started by squatting down and looking under the bed. There was nothing there – not even a dust bunny. He opened the drawer of the bed stand, finding a yoyo, a ball of twine, and several different lengths of rope. There were two cabinets, a chifferobe and a closet on the far side. One cabinet proved to be empty. The second one had a wash basin, a ewer of water, and a burlap sack. Jingen opened the sack and found candy and cookies, nothing else. The chifferobe proved to be empty also, so Jingen tried the closet. There were racks of clothes on either side, a shelf above the clothes and shelves along the back.

  A scraping noise drew Jingen's attention to the highest shelf. "Mice?"

  Jingen shrieked as a net dropped over him and he felt his mage centers go dead. "Spellcord! You bastard."

  Alassance dropped to the floor and kicked Jingen. "You upper class snots always take the bait."

  Jingen struggled to untangle himself, but only made it worse. "I'll rip your fucking mind apart when I get free."

  Alassance laughed at Jingen and tapped his own forehead. "Not likely. It's warded, and by my liege-god herself no less. Dynanna does it proper."

  "You're lying."

  The boy left Jingen and returned to sit cross-legged in the doorway with his sack of treats, munching on a cookie. "Think about it. You snot-nosed eejits do know how to think, don't you?" Alassance waited for a reply, which did not come, and then started talking again. "I spent three weeks in Charas after it fell. Demons and sa'necari were everywhere. They couldn't catch me and it was not for lack of trying."

  "I'll get you."

  Alassance yawned. "If you'd calm down, you might eventually figure out how to get loose." He reached into his sack and placed a pile of candy just out of Jingen's reach. "I'm going to the kitchen and see if I can cage some seconds. That roast boar was very tasty. I'll check on you when I get back."

  Jingen screamed insults at Alassance's disappearing back. The door closed, leaving him in the dark and he continued to shriek and rage until he finally ran out of breath and grew hoarse. A tear of frustration ran down Jingen's cheek. He slowly worked his fingers through the mesh and snagged a candy.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  ILDYRSETTS

  Jingen stole down to the blood-slave chambers in the dungeons and managed to get his mother alone. She sat in her black robes on a chest, staring into a candle lamp. By its light, Jingen could see the two day old scar from Anksha's most recent feeding. It angered him that the Beast fed upon his mother, that some mouth other than his had moved upon her flesh, dared to sink fangs into it.

  "I can't stop thinking how the new apprentice humiliated me. Bad enough he's human." Jingen pushed up his sleeve and offered his wrist to his mother. Then he talked while his mother fed.

  Disharyl lifted her face and wiped her mouth on a corner of her robe. "You've been practicing what I taught you?"

  A feral light entered Jingen's slanted eyes. "Yes, Mother. On the nibari."

  "The alterations must be infinitesimal. You must commit the acts you wish Stygean to be considered guilty of, then switch your faces in her mind. Anything that do
es not fit, you must blur sufficiently that no one, especially Chinisi, can decipher the truth. If her feelings for him are true ones, then you must switch those in her mind so that she believes it was you."

  "Yes, Mother." Jingen began to imagine having Chinisi, feeling her body struggle beneath his, feeling his mind slide like a knife through her consciousness. He suspected that he could get her pregnant easily – there were two nibari already carrying his get. Sa'necari were not normally this fertile; in fact, most of the older males were sterile by age thirty. An odd fact that no one had yet figured out the reason for.

  "Now give me what I want," Disharyl said, opening her bodice and lifting her breasts out. Jingen fastened on her left breast, sucking, as his mother's skillful hands slid into his pants to fondle him. When he hardened, Disharyl opened his pants and pulled her skirts to her hips. Jingen mounted her, thinking that only Chinisi could possibly feel as good beneath him as his mother did.

  * * * *

  Kell Diego Montoya had a Gormondi mother and a Minnorian father. A Minnorian guardsmon, he had fled Minnoras as it fell with his friend and fellow guardsmon, Ifor Huerta – another product of a Gormondi-Minnorian marriage – and fallen in with a small group of refugees led by Nans Gryphonheart. Deryna leaned against Kell, his arm around her shoulders. The tiny, mouse-brown haired healer had been the first of their little band rescued by Nans when the city fell to Galee and Zyne's coup.

  The trio were waiting for Nans at a camp at the edge of Ildyrsetts with ten other adults that had made the journey on hearing that Isranon intended to winter at Edvarde's mansion. A crowd had gathered at the edges, women and children mostly, but it was clear from their reaction that it was Isranon, not Nans, they were waiting for. The children rushed him, squealing and laughing.

  "Our mage! Our mage! Our mage!"

  For one blissful instant Isranon could not think. Then he squatted, settling Warrior in the crook of his arm, and began talking and hugging, letting them climb all over him. He kissed the tops of the littlest ones heads while Anksha laughed. These were the children he had rescued along the road to Ildyrsetts in their flight from Minnoras. He felt still more distanced from his beginnings, as if wakened from a dark dream to the bright light of dawn, yet it was a dawn that must be fought for – and perhaps died for. But he was willing; standing there, seeing the smiles on those children's faces, he was very willing. Isranon set them aside. Nans and the others had gone ahead, leaving him and Anksha behind. He spoke a moment with the mothers and then went after them.

  Deryna came to Isranon immediately, her hand drawn to the godmark on his forehead. "Mage-paladin! You're well, now?"

  Isranon gave her a quiet smile. "I'm much better."

  Deryna shot Nans a glance and got only a tiny shake of her head for answer that said later. A worried light came into the healer's eyes and then was gone.

  "Deryna has brought us healers: three Menders, several surgeons and a veritable horde of Readers. They'll be riding with us." Nans added, gesturing at Deryna, "His powers have grown immensely. No doubt, you've been hearing tales of Dawnreturning, even here. A master of life-magic. It is all true."

  Deryna hugged him, kissing his cheek. "I'm proud of you."

  Yet it made Isranon's cheeks warm uncomfortably, like an embarrassed little boy's. It was something like Aisha might have said when he had chopped a particularly fine stack of wood back on Claw's farm. "Thank you. Uh, now that we've got some real healers, I don't suppose any of you are midwives?"

  "I am," Deryna said. "Why? Who's having a baby?"

  Isranon pulled Anksha close, his face flushing hotter. "We are."

  Nevin, Luck and Travis roared with laughter at Isranon's discomfiture.

  Luck nudged Isranon. "Just keep saying it and you'll get used to it."

  * * * *

  Alassance walked out to the rear yard to watch the final event of the snow contests that Jeevys had been overseeing. Watching the other boys at play along the edges as the finalists prepared themselves in the middle, Alassance experienced an ache in a spot where he believed he had long ago stopped caring: hunger for companionship.

  There were four groups, two building snow forts and the other two making mounds of snowballs. Grygg's group was one short. Dahnig spied Alassance and waved at him. "Hey, Alassance, Stygean's disappeared on us again. We need a fourth. Want to help?"

  "Sure." Alassance joined them in the middle. "Why didn't Stygean come?"

  Dahnig chuckled and then Grygg laughed, thumbing at Iyan.

  The youngest boy snickered. "I went to find him and caught him at it."

  "At what?"

  "Snogging Chinisi in that little thicket behind the stables. Figured it was best to leave them to it."

  Alassance grinned and started adding snowballs to the mound. "You think he'll get lucky?"

  "Nah," said Grygg. "Chinisi's too proper to let him lift her skirts."

  A whistle blew and they all straightened.

  Jeevys indicated a large hourglass with a flourish.

  "Get ready," said Grygg. "Dahnig and I are the wall breakers. You two are the pitchers. Hit them hard and fast. Keep them down while we charge."

  The moment that Jeevys turned the hourglass over, Alassance and Iyan started pelting the snow fort.

  Standing in the shadows of the trees, Stygean held Chinisi's hand, happiness dimming in his eyes. "I let them down again."

  "They have Alassance."

  "They were supposed to have me." Stygean led Chinisi deeper into the trees and kissed her. "I have to stop seeing you like this."

  "But you only just started." Chinisi stamped her foot. "Just since the dance. You said you loved me."

  Stygean ducked his head, sighing. "I know. But I have to stop. It's going to get me in trouble. Getting myself in trouble also hurts my master and Nevin. So we have to stop seeing each other."

  Chinisi started to argue, then her eyes teared up and she fled.

  He felt like his stomach had fallen around his ankles as he walked back to yard. Dahnig and Grygg were in the middle of a tussle with the defenders, knocking the walls down. Alassance had closed the distance, still tossing hard. Iyan ran back and forth between the mound of ammunition and Alassance, re-arming him.

  Stygean rubbed his mittened hand across his nose and eyes, murmuring, "I do love you, Chinisi."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  PRICE OF LOVE.

  Melupo 2, 1077

  Chinisi stared at the note the nibari had just passed to her, and her heart leaped, for there was a large 'S' written over the seal. As soon as she was alone, she opened it and found her hopes confirmed. It was from Stygean: he had changed his mind and wanted to see her again.

  "Come and ride with me, Chinisi, my heart is full of things I want to share with you. Meet me on the east side of the walls at noon. Make certain the adults don't catch you riding into the forest, you know how they are."

  Stygean

  She glanced out her window at the position of the sun. It was nearly noon now. She swiftly changed into riding clothes and ran out. She talked one of the hostlers into readying her horse and she rode quickly through a postern gate with her cloak pulled around her face, hoping no one noticed her. She had not gone far into the trees when she noticed another rider sitting a short distance beyond her, his cloak pulled around his face like hers was.

  "Stygean?" She approached him.

  The rider threw back his cloak. "No. It's me."

  Chinisi's cheeks flamed as she realized she had been deceived. "Jingen! I want nothing to do with you."

  "Well, I want plenty to do with you."

  Chinisi turned her horse about to return to the mansion, and something sailed over her head, startling both her and the horse. It settled over her body. A net! She reached for her power, only to find that it did not answer. Spellcord!

  Jingen seized the bridle of her horse, tying it to the horn of his saddle. She struggled to get loose from the net and dismount. He bent in the saddle, grabbing her a
nd yanking her free of her mount. The side-saddle her aunt insisted upon gave her little to hold on to and resist him. He threw her across his lap. She screamed and kicked. Jingen put two fingers to her temple and stilled her with a word. Chinisi slumped over his saddle. She could hear, but she could not move so much as a finger.

  "You'll love me when I am finished, Chinisi," Jingen said. "You'll tell them I rescued you from Stygean. You'll think Stygean violated you."

  Chinisi went cold and angry inside. She wanted to scream, but her throat would not work. Never. Never, never, never. Yet even while she denied the possibility, she was not certain whether he could make good on it or not. She still knew so little of sa'necari magic despite her long talks with Stygean.

  Jingen twisted his fingers in her hair to bring her head around so their eyes could meet. "After all, you've been opening your legs readily enough to Stygean for months now."

  Chinisi shuddered inwardly. Is that what you think?

  "I sent Stygean a note that you wanted to meet him here, just as I sent you one from him. When he comes, I'll kill him. You forced me to this, Chinisi."

  * * * *

  Stygean fanned the note in his hands, wondering what Chinisi wanted to show him and if this might simply be another ploy to get more attention from him by taking her riding. He decided to ignore it and then reconsidered, since he didn't want her riding alone when he failed to show up. Stygean tucked the note into his shirt and set off to saddle his horse.

  He arrived at the rendezvous and found no one there. At first it irritated him. Then he noticed a few yards off a place where the snow had been disturbed by two horses suggesting that one had been jostling the other. The tracks led off to the east and he followed, suspicion hardening within him. Stygean rode for an hour before he spotted a bit of blue in the trees, the same shade Chinisi was so fond of. He rode under the tree and snatched it off. Dried flecks of blood sprinkled the bit of cloth. Stygean's heart caught in his chest as he brought it to his nose to smell it and extended his sa'necari senses through it. Chinisi. Someone had Chinisi. He could turn around now and go back for help, hoping that whoever or whatever had her would not kill her before they could return, or he could go after her himself. He doubted there was much time. So he decided to ride on. The snow had begun to fall again.